Rugby World Cup: Scotland's Stuart McInally is top quality and this World Cup will be special after what happened in 2019 - Fraser Brown

It feels like an age since Scotland’s hopes of a World Cup opening weekend win were smothered by a South African blitz. There have been 10 World Cup matches since that defeat in Marseille and there will be another four before we see Gregor Townsend’s team in action again, against Tonga in Nice on Sunday.

Stuart McInally with his son Oliver after the Scotland v Italy warm-up game at Scottish Gas Murrayfield. McInally has been called in the Scotland World Cup squad to replace David Cherry. (Photo by Ben Brady/INPHO/Shutterstock)

If it feels like an age to us all watching at home, I can only imagine how the players have felt; two weeks of gruelling training in the French heat to put right what went wrong on the opening weekend.

The big news this week in the Scotland camp has been Stuart McInally joining the squad to replace David Cherry who suffered a concussion from falling down stairs at the team hotel. I’m disappointed for David and regardless of how he got injured, I think it became a pretty simple decision to replace him. That might sound harsh but with Ewan Ashman having also suffered a head injury it meant that at one point George Turner was the only fit hooker in the squad. It’s a specialised position and Scotland were in danger of being in a situation where they were only one training injury away from disaster.

While I feel for David, I’m very pleased for Stuart. He announced his intention to retire after the World Cup back in April and it’s always a strange dynamic when you make that decision public that far out from the tournament. It can be somewhat of an anti-climax if you don’t make the 33. I spoke to him when he was left out of the original World Cup squad and he was very disappointed and I had a lot of sympathy for him because across Scotland’s four summer warm-up games I thought he was one of our top two hookers, along with George Turner. But as we’ve seen at this World Cup there are injuries galore, and Cherry’s misfortune has opened the door for Stuart. It’s part of World Cup life, and it’s thrown into sharp focus when injuries occur in specialist positions.

Rambo will now finish his career at the World Cup, bowing out on the biggest stage. I’m not sure whether he’ll play against Tonga this weekend - I think George Turner will start and Ewan will be given game time if he’s fully fit again. I think it's more likely Stuart will start against Romania in Scotland’s third game, six days before our group decider against Ireland. Whether Tonga, Romania or Ireland, it’s a fitting way to finish off a wonderful career with the added caveat that his next appearance with bring up his 50th cap, only the fifth Scottish hooker to reach that landmark.

It will also bring him back full circle from what he has spoken about as his darkest days in a Scotland jersey, four years ago in Japan. He was named as captain ahead of the World Cup in Japan after captaining his country at the end of the Six Nations. Unfortunately, it started in the worst possible way with that haunting defeat by Ireland in Scotland’s first game of the tournament. He said himself publicly that he never really recovered from that. There were various issues throughout the summer which created splits within the squad, and he found it difficult to pull everyone in the same direction. Then going into Scotland’s final pool match against Japan he not only lost the captaincy but was dropped to the bench and it took a long time to recover mentally more than anything.

This is all stuff Stuart has been very open about, addressing it publicly. And given how he felt four years ago, it’s why this World Cup will be a special way for him to finish his career. Aside from all that, Scotland have just added a really top-quality player to their squad. And that’s to take nothing away from David Cherry who we all know is a solid, nuts and bolts hooker who hits his lineouts, is decent in the scrum and who’ll tackle, hit rucks and carry. But if you’re talking about impact around the pitch then there aren’t many that can match Stuart - you have to remember that Stuart was, for quite a while, one of, if not the best open-field running hooker in the world. So from a Scotland point of view, to be able to add that sort of quality into the squad is only going to benefit them. It’s good for Stuart and it’s also beneficial for Scotland.

Ireland did a very professional job on Tonga on Saturday, winning 59-16 in Nantes. It was all the more impressive because this Tongan squad is littered with talent. They’ve got Ben Tameifuna, Samiuela Lousi, Vaea Fifita, Malakai Fekitoa, Pita Ahki, Salesi Piutau - unbelievable talent and that’s not even mentioning the Glaswegian Tongan Tank waiting in the wings, Sione Vailanu. But what Ireland did really well against them last week was control the game. Ireland are the best team in the world at keeping the ball in hand and exerting pressure and I think it’s fair to say they’ve got the best structured attack in the world. It’s stark contrast to how many teams are trying to win Test match rugby at the minute; looking to dominate the kick battle, conceding possession but looking for territory. I was listening recently to Danny Cipriani talking about this and how Ireland’s attack shape is so well structured that everyone knows their roles at all times. It’s doesn’t constrain the Irish players by forcing them into a rigid structure. They still have freedom to make decisions because they know the framework so well and they are always in the right positions to make those decisions. And that’s what they did against Tonga. They controlled the ball really well and held on to it. They weren’t sloppy. They didn’t give away easy turnovers or drop the ball and they never allowed the match to break up and become the type of open-field running game where the back five of the Tongan scrum and their backline get the opportunity to run at unorganised defences.

Ireland also kicked smartly when exiting and put pressure on the Tongan lineout. It was an all-round, well constructed game where they pressurised in the right areas. And that’s what Scotland have to do on Sunday in Nice - it’s a good blueprint to follow. They’ll want to play with ball because they had so few attacking opportunities against South Africa but they can’t afford to be loose. They need a well constructed 80-minute performance, and to avoid dropping out of it for 10-15 minute spells. Not that I think Tonga could run away with the game in those 10 or 15 minutes but it’s important that Scotland don’t lose control.

Scotland’s lineout malfunctioned against South Africa but it has consistently been up around the high 80s to 90 per cent mark in terms of a winning ratio over the last couple of years. The alarming thing against South Africa was how badly it malfunctioned. And it wasn’t one thing; it was calling, drill, throwing, clarity – everything. Scotland really need to try to squeeze Tonga with their set-piece and control that area of the game. Against Ireland we saw that when Tonga started to get frustrated, errors crept in. They started to play individually and the Irish were able to capitalise.

I think Scotland will pick a strong team but there will be tweaks in certain areas. In the second row, for example, I’m pretty sure one of Richie Gray and Grant Gilchrist won’t play. Lineout defence is going to be absolutely huge against Tonga and I think Richie will play this week and will call the lineout. I think Grant might be rested and they’ll probably swap for the Romania game to ensure they both avoid playing four games in a row. We may also see a change in the back row. I think the centres will be the same. Neither Sione nor Huw Jones managed to get into their attacking stride against South Africa and this could be a game for them to go up against top quality centre opposition in Ahki and Fekitoa.

The only other possible change might be Kyle Steyn coming into the back three, maybe for Darcy Graham. Kyle played very well in the summer series and that may be a change Gregor considers, or he might name him on the bench. There is also the possibility of places on the bench for Rory Sutherland and Javan Sebastian. Scotland probably won’t want WP Nel playing four games in a row in the pool stage, and the same could probably be said of Zander Fagerson. So it could be that one gets this weekend off. I would imagine they would want to keep Zander fresh for the final group game against Ireland so he will probably not play against Romania. That might mean resting WP against Tonga and going with Zander and Javan as the two tightheads.

Both George Horne and Ewan Ashman will return to the 23 if both passed fit but other than those mentioned above, I think changes will be kept to a minimum, more a case of making tweaks to manage game-time across the pool stage and give people the opportunity to push for selection and freshen things up.